Book I (continued)

Book I (continued)

Book I (continued)

Book I (continued)

Summary

A drunk Duncan Idaho, the swordmaster, stumbles into the
Atreides castle. Jessica chastises Duncan, who in his drunken state
reveals that he suspects that Jessica is a spy for the Harkonnens.
Jessica, shocked, calls Hawat to meet with Duncan. She confronts
him with his suspicions and tries to convince Hawat that their beliefs
are irrational. Jessica explains that it is more logical to believe
that the Harkonnens are making Hawat suspicious of her. But Hawat
is loyal only to Duke Leto, and he cannot eliminate his suspicion
of Jessica. Jessica uses the “Voice” on him, a semi-magical tone
of voice that forces Hawat to obey whatever she says. The Voice
surprises and disturbs Hawat and makes him think that Jessica is
an even more dangerous enemy. When Jessica and Hawat part that night,
he is still suspicious.

Late that night, Duke Leto is pondering a strange note
he received. He hears an odd sound and investigates, discovering
the dead bodies of Tuek and Shadout Mapes. Yueh has shut off the house
generators and the shield, leaving the Atreides castle vulnerable
to attack. Yueh attacks Leto and informs him that he is placing
a false tooth in the duke’s mouth. The tooth will release a great
poisonous gas when the duke closes his mouth tightly. He feels badly that
he has betrayed the duke, so he tells Duke Leto to bite down on the
tooth when he is brought before Baron Harkonnen. This way, Yueh
can kill the baron and avenge his wife’s death. However, Yueh still
feels some guilt for killing the duke, so he has arranged for Paul and
Jessica to escape safely. He takes Leto’s ducal ring to give to
Paul as sign of his true intentions for Jessica and Paul to be spare

Sometime shortly thereafter, Jessica and Paul are kidnapped
by the Harkonnens. The Harkonnen guards fly them into the desert, presumably
to kill the pair. Jessica seduces the two guards and they fight
over her until one guard kills the other. Jessica then distracts the
remaining guard long enough for Paul to kill him. Paul and Jessica
discover a small bundle inside the ship containing food, stillsuits,
and other provisions, as well as the ducal ring. As they free themselves,
more ornithopters, or small flying ships, appear over the horizon,
heading toward them.

Yueh confronts Baron Harkonnen and demands to know what has
happened to his wife. As Yueh expected, the baron has killed her,
and the baron then orders Piter to kill Yueh as well. The baron’s men
bring Duke Leto before the baron, who gloats over his success at
defeating the duke. He demands to know where Jessica and Paul have
fled, but the duke does not know. The baron threatens to torture
Leto. Leto bites down on the poison false tooth, emitting a gas that
kills Piter and all the guards, but the baron escapes. One of the Sardaukar,
the elite troops of the emperor, demands to see the duke’s body,
as the emperor had requested. The emperor’s request causes the baron
to lose face in front of his men.

Paul and Jessica are now hiding in a tent from the ornithopters. Fortunately,
Duncan Idaho is piloting the ornithopter on instructions from Yueh.
Yueh had helped Duncan escape from the baron’s men. Duncan hides
Paul and Jessica and then leaves to help the other surviving Atreides
men. During this time, Paul changes: his intelligence has become
very cold and calculating, but it has also become very powerful.
He is able to think ahead of his mother, a Bene Gesserit. Paul reveals
to Jessica that the duke always knew she was innocent of treachery.
She grieves, but he finds he is unable to grieve with her. As Paul
sits, he suddenly has a vision: his intelligence increases, and
he has become hyperaware because of the spice he has been eating
in his food. He suddenly has a prophetic dream and sees thousands
of possible futures. Paul can have these prophesies because of the
sudden increased power of his mind and his Mentat-style training.
He tells Jessica that she will give birth to a daughter, despite
the fact that Jessica has not told anyone she is pregnant. Paul
also reveals that both he and Jessica are Harkonnens—the baron was Jessica’s
unknown father.

Analysis

This section describes the key strategies of the Harkonnen
trap, showing the baron’s military intelligence. The trap’s complexity suggests
that the baron has spent many years devising his plot against the
Atreides. The Harkonnen trap includes many different features. First,
to bypass the Atreides energy-based defense shields—intended to
block lasguns, or laser guns—the Harkonnens use projectile weaponry
like bullets, missiles, and artillery fire. Second, the emperor
is a party to the baron’s treachery. Therefore, the Sardaukar, the
emperor’s ruthless elite troops, will help the baron destroy the
Atreides’s troops. The Houses of the Landsraad, the overarching
group of families that controls most of the galaxy, would be very
upset if they discovered that the emperor had supported the defeat
of the Atreides and would likely band together to oust him. To prevent
the Landsraad from finding out, the Sardaukar disguise themselves
as Harkonnen soldiers. Finally, the baron intends to install one
of his own brethren—Rabban, one of his lesser nephews—to rule Arrakis
after the Harkonnens take over. The baron wants Rabban to oppress
the Arrakeen people and make them hate him, so that when the baron’s
beloved nephew Feyd-Rautha arrives to take Rabban’s place, he will
be welcomed as a hero. The baron does not just fight against the
Atreides, but he also defies his own family members, as well as
the Houses of Landsraad, the governing board to which he belongs.
His outright abuse of his relationships suggests that he will not
be in power for much longer.